UPDATE

South East Asia Regional Conference on Lead Poisoning, (24-25 October 2013)

Source: Toxics Link, Date: October , 2013

The South East Asia Regional Conference on Lead Poisoning was held at
The Park Hotel in New Delhi. The conference was organised by Toxics Link, in partnership with World
Health Organisation, Centre for Occupational and Environmental Health (Maulana
Azad Medical College, Delhi) and the Lata Medical Research Foundation, Nagpur.
The two-day conference focused on health impacts of lead, particularly those
arising from lead in paints. It also served as a platform for sharing
information and sensitizing key authorities on how lead affects the children
and how best can this be dealt with, in the South East Asian countries.

Bollywood superstar and brand ambassador of Kansai Nerolac
Paints Limited, Mr. Shah Rukh Khan supported the cause which was visible in his
statement: “Lead causes irreversible brain damage in children. It is preventable.
Avoid exposures in children by choosing house paints that are lead free. Wash
their hands frequently. Let’s work together to make this world a safer place
for our Children.”( The
message can be viewed ion Toxics Link’s website: http://toxicslink.org/?q=message-sent-shah-rukh-khan-south-east-asia-regional-conference-lead-poisoning ).

Medical practitioners, paint industry,
educationists, policy makers, NGO’s, researchers and media were present at the
conference which resulted in a dynamic exchange of thoughts, ideas, and action
plans. Apart from participants from the host nation – India, the conference also
saw representatives from Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Myanmar share their
experiences in the field of eliminating lead from paints. Since the relevant
ministries were conspicuous by their absence, the forum put in place an action
plan to engage these ministries through sustained dialogue and campaigns.

Some action plan points were
as follows:

Petitioning
the government, jointly with the industry, to bring in legislation regulating
Lead content in paint

Build
on a Task Force including members from the concerned NGO’s like Toxics Link,
paint industry and government agencies, to put together a strategy on the lines
of the successful e-waste legislation campaign, to take forward the cause of
regulating Lead levels in paint

Build
a task force specific to schools, with the responsibility of designing
communications for Parents’ awareness

Encourage
prominent players in the Paint industry to advertise their “Lead-free” status

Reach
out to retailers’ forum to support and recommend sales of Lead free paints

Create
a specialist task force for Social Media Management, to create a sustained
campaign mobilising online awareness and support